Divergence: The Vampire Queen

A Quiet Moment

Natalia gave her husband a kiss on the cheek, and he pulled her into him, returning the kiss in full. "Enjoy them," he told her as he switched places with her, going into the adjoining room and leaving his bloodied clothes in a heap on the floor. He used the same basin of water with a fresh cloth to clean any remnant from his skin. Then he found the neatly stacked clean clothes that had been left for him and redressed.

Returning, he saw the two babies resting beside their mother as she watched them, never taking her eyes off them. Marcello lay down with them and picked Dante up gently for the first time. He was so much smaller than his sister, and he felt so fragile, even if the milk had helped him gain strength. "You are my son and you will be king one day." Dante said nothing, simply wiggling and getting into a comfortable position to rest.

"It must have been Sibella's hand through your bump. Just look at how strong she is." He was looking over the both of them now as he patted and rocked Dante to sleep. "No more bump any more though..." He said, letting his eyes run over her figure. It was in such stark comparison to the overly pregnant, bedridden, dying woman of before. Even compared to her original state, there were drastic differences.

She was both happy and sad about "no more bump." She was glad her children were here, safe, but when they weren't tormenting her, being too rough, she had grown accustomed to the movements. It felt strange that she now felt nothing inside her.

She ran a hand over her smooth stomach. There wasn't even a scar, no sign that the children ever came from her body. She was perfect, unmarred, and yet... that made her a little sad. There was no badge of honor for making it through the terrible ordeal. Outside of her children, of course. That should be enough. She should be grateful that she would have a perfect form for all her years, but she was still adjusting.

Natalia looked down at the little girl resting on her chest. She was so beautiful with little wisps of dark hair, and though they were now closed... she had her mother's green eyes. Dante looked so fragile compared to her. He had no hair, and he'd yet to open his eyes so either of them could see them. But they were both breathing. Both their hearts were beating. They were both warm.

"How long does that last?" she asked, even though she knew he hadn't been reading her mind. "The human parts," she clarified, "they're warm... they breathe... their hearts beat..." she smoothed down one of Sibella's tufts of hair. "She's wonderfully warm, and it's nice to feel breathing and a heart, things you think you'll never miss..." she closed her eyes for a moment and drew in an unneeded breath, letting it out slowly. "It's still weird. I assume it'll be weird for a while..."

"Typically, it fades out as they hit adulthood. How fast they reach adulthood varies... Some have grown at a human rate, some grow faster. The records speculate it was so they could protect themselves in case of a threat." He knew Natalia would never let anyone hurt her babies, neither would he, but that was the way nature had decided it should be.

"They can eat human food, too. Not only human food mind, they will need blood to survive, but they should be able to taste human food as it once tasted to you." He struggled to remember that far back in his life, to what food really tasted like. Apparently, he had asked for a lot of cake, which one way or another he had always gotten.

Marcello looked down at his son as his breathing slowed and he drifted off into a sleep. This had been quite a day, and it had, no doubt, exhausted him. He pictured all the things he would do with his son: riding, fighting, maybe even teaching him to paint. That gave him a brilliant idea! He wanted the hands and feet prints of them both. So he could remember them as tiny babies forever.

He looked over at Sibella, studying her tiny features. "She looks like you," he said with a small smile. Maybe not entirely like her. There were some of his features in there. Her hair might change between their two shades. It could be too early to tell in some respects. In his eyes, though, she was the spitting image of her mother.

"I hope they don't grow as fast outside of me as they did inside me..." it had taken eight, almost nine weeks to get her daughter to about nine months gestation and her son closer to eight. At that rate, in twelve weeks they'd be like one year olds, and by the time they were actually a year, they'd be over four.

"I hope they age slowly as well. It'd be a shame to have them so grown up so fast." He stroked his little boy's head. Maybe he could grow a little faster... just to catch up to his sister. Then, after that, he wanted them to enjoy their human-like years. It seemed to be something Natalia wanted for them.

"Do you celebrate birthdays? Since you don't really age at the same rate? And you'd have hundreds of them in a lifetime." She had so many questions. They just kept popping into her mind as their lives progressed.

"We celebrate birthdays only after they announced us to the world. There was no genuine need before then. We don't age the same as a year. What did you even do for your birthdays as a child? Do you think we should do it as a family for these little ones?" He was curious to hear her perspective. In his mind, birthdays were just another party where he had to pretend to enjoy socialising, drinking and dancing. Maybe they were different as a child, though?

"Birthdays are times to celebrate. There's cake. You eat your favorite meal. Everyone has to do what you want. And you get presents! They're amazing!" She laughed. "I mean, even if they don't age at the same, their birthday is still the day they were born...today...and that's worth celebrating. We went through a lot to bring them into the world. And that's completely worth a celebration in my book."

She laid the little girl now peacefully sleeping down on the crib next to them. "They're so very special. Especially as children. It's important for them to have some sense of normalcy. There isn't a lot I can do for them to make their childhood less odd, but I want to do all I can."

He laughed. "We can celebrate their birthdays if you want to. You'll have to explain and tell me what to do though." He would not deny his children fun or celebration. He could not deny them anything. As much as he did not want to spoil them, he could not imagine saying no to them unless it was extreme. He laid the sleeping boy down with his sister. Watching them both in the crib was just perfect, asleep and peaceful.

"We can try to give them a normal childhood. We cannot forget they are different, though. They are more special than any children. They will have to go through the same training as I did." When they were old enough, they would start to fully transition, and then they would need to know how to survive. Building a tolerance to the sun and how to fight off enemies.

Natalia closed her eyes, but then she remembered she didn't sleep anymore. She couldn't sleep anymore. She also wasn't physically tired, but the act of sleeping seemed like such a natural response. Her mind was tired. Her emotions were tired, but physically... she felt fine.

"This is so surreal..." she whispered. The changes she had undergone, the two little lives she'd brought into the world. She kept expecting to wake up from a dream. But it was her reality. It was amazing.

Marcello watched her. She kept taking breaths and closing her eyes as if to sleep, every time making him smile as if she was being funny. She would have to get used to never needing to rest. Filling the hours of the day with other activities and ways to pass time. She could truly become a master at whatever skill she pursued, but he theorised that skill would be looking after her babies. She was a perfect mother.